I just got a UV-5RE for the exceptional price of FREE. It was a raffle prize at a club meeting. Even using the marginal manual that came with the radio, I was able to program in a couple of local repeaters with little effort. As it turned out, I already had a compatible programming cable that is for the Part 90 Wouxun HT I have. I downloaded CHIRP and installed it in my main WIN 7 computer. The cable and software wouldn't read the radio at all.

After installing CHIRP in my WIN XP netbook, I was able to read from the radio. Because I couldn't figure out how to get CHIRP to read the .csv file from my Yaesu HT programmer, I had to hand build my programming file, but once I had it done, I was able to write it back to the radio and I now have it fully programmed to match my other dual-band radios.

I did find out that RT Systems makes programming software and cable for the UV-5R and, based on my experience with RT Systems software for other radios, I think this is probably the way to go.

One thing I like about the UV-5R is that you can buy a larger, higher capacity battery for it that gives a bit more heft to the radio. This thing is really tiny...

The biggest difference between the hand programming of the Baofeng UV-5R and Yaesu's HTs is that with the Baofeng, the repeater shift direction and amount of offset has to be programmed manually. It's not part of the firmware as it is with Yaesu. Also, to write the channel to memory after setting all the parameters takes two steps, not just one. Other than that the radio is fairly simple to program.

I just got a UV-5RE for the exceptional price of FREE. It was a raffle prize at a club meeting. Even using the marginal manual that came with the radio, I was able to program in a couple of local repeaters with little effort. As it turned out, I already had a compatible programming cable that is for the Part 90 Wouxun HT I have. I downloaded CHIRP and installed it in my main WIN 7 computer. The cable and software wouldn't read the radio at all.

After installing CHIRP in my WIN XP netbook, I was able to read from the radio. Because I couldn't figure out how to get CHIRP to read the .csv file from my Yaesu HT programmer, I had to hand build my programming file, but once I had it done, I was able to write it back to the radio and I now have it fully programmed to match my other dual-band radios.

I did find out that RT Systems makes programming software and cable for the UV-5R and, based on my experience with RT Systems software for other radios, I think this is probably the way to go.

One thing I like about the UV-5R is that you can buy a larger, higher capacity battery for it that gives a bit more heft to the radio. This thing is really tiny...

I found out that the driver for the Baofeng cable is an obsolete driver from a company called Prolific. The chip has been alleged to be a bootleg chip, which is why the Win 7 drivers won't work with it. What I did was to search the net for the obsolete driver. I found a driver from early 2009 that works on XP, Vista, and all 64 bit OSes. I installed it, and lo and behold I can now use Chirp to program my UV-B5. I also have a UV-5R, but I bought the B5 because it's a better radio. If anybody wants this driver, email me, my email address is on QRZ. The only problem I can see is that there's no driver for 32 bit versions of 7, which was installed on some consumer oriented boxes in 2009.

I found out that the driver for the Baofeng cable is an obsolete driver from a company called Prolific. The chip has been alleged to be a bootleg chip, which is why the Win 7 drivers won't work with it. What I did was to search the net for the obsolete driver. I found a driver from early 2009 that works on XP, Vista, and all 64 bit OSes. I installed it, and lo and behold I can now use Chirp to program my UV-B5. I also have a UV-5R, but I bought the B5 because it's a better radio. If anybody wants this driver, email me, my email address is on QRZ. The only problem I can see is that there's no driver for 32 bit versions of 7, which was installed on some consumer oriented boxes in 2009.

Some of the cables available for sale on places like e-Bay do have counterfeit Prolific chips in them and that's where a lot of the problems come from. I'm using my Wouxun cable (that I purchased from Powerwerx) to program the Baofeng. That particular cable has worked on my Windows 7 machine in the past, and I believe the issue I'm having now with it is in the computer and not the drivers or the cable. I've been having other issues with this particular machine and it may be time for a purge and re-install. It's really a moot point as the cable works on two other machines I have.

Folks complaining about the UV-5Rx series tend to forget ONE THING!They cost $35 BRAND NEW as compared to around $350 for a typical JAPANESE HT!!!! SO U gotta expect a little LESS QUALITY! At the price, U buy 2 or 3 of them, and be happy if ONE works! I have 2 UV-5Rs and they both work FB! And they are programmed using the BAOFENG Software (I couldn't get the CHIRP to work on my work computer)

YOU can't even buy a spare BATTERY for a YAEKENCOM HT for what the whole BAOFENG COSTS!!!!

Buy 2 or 3 of them and be happy if one works? Two things--how long will that one work, and why waste money on junk in the first place. The big three makes some HTs that don't cost $350 to begin with, and if I wanted to waste $40 or $50, I'd spend it on a good meal and a show, not to buy some thrown together junk--and then pray that it works.

First - it is a CHEAP radio. One I'd take out in the raft, on the lake and not worry about the thing getting lost or such.

If you're not happy get a refund. If you bought it from some place that doesn't offer refunds. Start shopping elsewhere.

Chirp works fine.

Would I buy it again? Perhaps... I've had 4 of them in the last year or so. Never a problem. My brother has two. One he keeps in his wifes car for emergencies and one he carries when he is out working. He can hit all his local repeaters and over all he's happy.

Long thread, lots of experiences, some good info, some not so good. Just two cents more:

I just bought a couple of these. Programming the memories from the keypad is not hard, just tedious. Okay for a few stored frequencies, but if storing a lot, then software is the way to go. In case it helps, I used CHIRP, and this cable from Amazon:

I tried installing drivers from the CD that came with the cable, and struggled at first, but eventually I just used Device Manager (this being a laptop with Windows 7) to update the driver from the Internet, and it installed the latest Prolific driver. That combination -- CHIRP, the mentioned cable, and the latest Prolific driver -- works like a charm.

One "feature" not much discussed (if at all--I may have skimmed over something) is the ability to use non-Ham frequencies on these Chinese HT's. I understand the legal implications (I have a GMRS license, and hope to use these with "bubble pack" GMRS radios, as well as local 2m/70cm repeaters). They seem pretty popular with the SHTF crowd because of the open frequencies on these little radios. They are not "cheap" radios, just inexpensive. And for the price, worth it. They are quirky as can be, compared to the Japanese HT's we're more used to (I have three different Yaesu models), and that can be a turnoff for some. But for the price, they are fun to play around with.

And that is half of what Ham Radio is all about, right? Playing around with stuff, getting something to work without putting a lot of money into it?

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